


Episode 59: The Lie, Pt. 1

by PitoyaPTx



Series: Clan Meso'a [59]
Category: Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Gen, Mandalorian, Mandalorian Clan, Mandalorian Culture
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-25
Updated: 2020-05-25
Packaged: 2021-03-02 20:01:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,987
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24372448
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PitoyaPTx/pseuds/PitoyaPTx
Summary: "We call it, The Mountain. She is not a real mountain, but the thing within us that causes us so much fear, so much anxiety, it blocks our view of the world." ~ Unknown ChibalaWe knew this day would come. Are you ready?
Series: Clan Meso'a [59]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1261364
Kudos: 1





	Episode 59: The Lie, Pt. 1

“That’s...who..?” Chellin stammered, staring unblinking at Jecho’s projection.  
Garrigon’s eyes were just as wide, but neither were more in shock than Jiik. The Togruta had dropped his mug and gripped the holotable, ignoring the shattered bits of ceramic and partially dried caf all over his boots.   
“Jecho,” he said as though he hadn’t spoken in years, “She left us eight years ago.”   
“I..yes,” said Chellin after a moment to compose himself, “I..think I remember you saying something about that.”  
Jecho chuckled, “It’s okay, I… figured this would be hard to explain.”   
“Then start explaining, Jec,” said No’gan, oscillating between excitement and fits of sobbing, “We’ve...I’ve missed you so much!”   
The others nodded, sans Maceon who was still confused.   
Jecho smiled down at him, her eyes beginning to water, “I… never thought I’d see you all again.”   
“We’ll be there in a heartbeat!” said Teika suddenly, letting go of Lyse who hadn’t moved since Jecho appeared, “That’s why you’re contacting us...right? Please say that’s what this is..”   
She nodded, “Yes, but,” she held out a hand to her left, “There’s a few things you need to know.”   
Beon and Fent grabbed each other’s arms at almost the exact same moment when Cara came into frame. She slid next to Jecho and put her arms around the Twi’lek’s middle.   
“Hi,” she said breathlessly, “Hi Beon. Hi Fent.”   
“Cara!” they said in unison, Fent taking off his helmet and Beon flipping up his visor.  
Beun looked from them to the child beside Jecho then back again. She crossed her arms.   
“I thought you said she was a teenager?” she asked.   
“She is,” said Fent, “She’s just… kinda short.”   
Cara huffed, but began to laugh and cry at the same time, “I’ve gotten taller, you’ll see!” She wiped her eyes on the sleeve of her shirt, “I missed you..both of you!”   
“Jec tell me we’re picking you guys up somewhere,” continued No’gan, a hint of desperation in his voice, “Please?”  
Jecho muttered a curse and began rubbing her own eyes, “Just let me explain a few things first, okay? Then I’ll tell you what’s happening.” 

When I left you, when I boarded that transport to Onderon, I thought the best thing for me to do was find some work. So, I headed to Nar Shaddaa. Yes, Hutt space. It...wasn’t my brightest idea but I figured where better to hide? I’d never make it on a planet like Coruscant and I sure as hell wasn’t going back to Fa’athra’s… but on the way there, our transport was delayed. We were stopped by another ship claiming someone on board had stolen something from the Sakaan Collective. We were all searched, but turned up nothing. They didn’t give up and sent one of their officers on board. She went from passenger to passenger, grilling us about our whereabouts. When she made it to me, I told her I’d just left a Mandalorian stronghold on business, thinking they wouldn’t mess with me if I was aligned with one of the Clans. Turns out, that only made her more suspicious. I was taken from the ship and brought to the Collective’s vessel. There were eight of them and the woman seemed to be the one in charge. She told me they’d been tracking illegal activity perpetrated by a Mandalorian, and it was suspicious that the first transport their sources flagged had a “Mandalorian conspirator aboard”. I did what I could to explain myself, but they said they couldn’t take any chances. I was… locked up for a few weeks while they tracked down other leads. After a while, they came to realize that I really didn’t know anything. I thought they would let me go, but they said it would be too risky for word to get out that someone had stolen from them. So..they offered me a job. If I kept quiet about their business, they’d pay me to upkeep their ship. It wasn’t hard, they seemed to take pride in having a well oiled operation. In fact, I met other Sakaan members who shared this love of operational efficiency. It..made me homesick...but I thought I wouldn’t be welcomed back after… So I stayed, and I grew to like being with them. They were stubborn and had a particular way of doing everything. Although, I did get them to switch to a better motor oil and helped them install better paneling in the cargo bay, so I guess you could say they grew to trust me. I even met other Mandalorians that somehow stayed on the Sakaan’s good side. And...that’s how I found Cara. They’d paid a Mandalorian to track down some stolen weapons and found a little more than they expected. I promise, Beon, she’s been with me this whole time. We’ve both been safe. And that Mandalorian sends her apologies. She didn’t want to risk you two being the thieves. They’ve eased up on their blind attacks since then, I promise.   
“She’s lying,” muttered Jiik, his brows furrowed into a deep ‘v’.   
“There’s always some truth in a lie,” Garrigon countered under his breath.   
“So you and Cara have been..what? Traveling the galaxy?” asked Beon.   
“Mhm,” Cara nodded a tad too enthusiastically, “And I met a lot of really cool people and visited a lot of cool places! Did you know that there are lakes the size of cities?”   
“Isn’t that just an ocean?” Fent chuckled.   
“I..” Cara thought for a moment, “I’ve read about oceans, I think. Is that bigger than a lake?”  
“Loads bigger,” Beon laughed, “We’ll show you one sometime.”   
She grinned, “Promise?”  
“We’ll take you anywhere you want,” said Fent, his cheeks sore from smiling, “Anywhere.”   
“We’re just glad you’re alright, both of you,” added Beon, “and we’ll come for you, ok? Just tell us where.”   
“But what made them let you go?” Maceon spoke up. She’d been studying both Cara and Jecho with increasing suspicion as they told their story. “And,” she added, tapping the air with her finger, “Why have I never heard of the Sahkhan Collective? Are they some secret cabal or something?”  
“Something like that,” Jecho explained, letting go of Cara and gesturing, “They’re secretive but in general they're just another Outer Rim trade group.”   
“Who get things stolen from them and interrupt major travel lanes in order to recover it?”   
Jecho nodded, “I.. don’t know what else I can tell you.”   
“Well,” Maceon continued, rocking back on her heels, “Can you tell us who’s piloting your ship? Because if I were a secret trade group, I wouldn’t want to let someone go without making sure my assets remained safe. In fact, I’d want to negotiate the deal myself.”   
“That’s...not possible.”   
“Why?”  
“If you knew who they were, then how would they, as you said, keep their assets safe?”  
Jecho crossed her arms behind her back and tried not to look like the nervous wreck she was, grasping her wrists so hard she could have torn them from their alignment.   
“Maceon,” Beun hissed, “We really shouldn’t push our luck right now.”  
“Oh?” the Zabrak said loudly, glancing in Lyse’s direction, “If my closest friend pissed off for eight years then suddenly returned, I’d want to know everything I could about it. Wouldn’t you?”   
Jecho’s lip quivered. Hesitantly, she turned to look at Lyse. The gold Twi’lek was still kneeling in place, still holding onto the lounger with one hand and bracing herself against the floor with the other. She didn’t speak for what felt like an eternity, instead staring at a point just beside Jecho.   
“No,” she said finally, meeting Jecho’s eyes, “I think… I’d just trust her. I think I’d just want her back. Because,” she added, her countenance growing dark as she glared in Maceon’s direction, “Not everyone gets to come back, do they?”   
While Jecho’s face relaxed, melting almost, Maceon’s cocky suspicion turned into a deep snarl. “You don’t know what you’re talking about!” she growled.   
“Enough!” Beun barked, pushing Beon to the side and getting between Lyse and Maceon, “Look we can talk more once we’re back together, okay? If she is with this...Sahkhan, then maybe it isn’t safe to talk freely.”   
Palouta chuckled; Koucitesh glanced disapprovingly at him.   
“That may be for the best,” said Garrigon to Chellin, “if we play it safe we just might get more intel than we’ve ever had.”   
“Agreed,” the Alor nodded. “This is the closest we’ve ever gotten, but if we make too bold of a move they’ll disappear again.”   
Jiik clenched his jaw and tightened his grip on the holotable.   
“Can’t you see they’re just distracting us?” Maceon was shouting, gesturing back at the cargo bay in the direction of the ship wreckage, “They don’t want us near that ship. That’s why they made it look like a trap, that’s why they’re dangling your friends in front of you.”   
“But Jecho said they hired Mandalorians to do their dirty work before,” countered Teika, “Maybe they don’t trust the Ordo as much as other Clans?”  
“Yes, but why?!” she thrust her palms against her face, “Are you guys just going to take this explanation or are you going to really think about this for a moment?”  
“And what in Kad’s name are you suggesting, then,” asked Fent, exasperated, “You were all gung-ho about going on this job before. What changed?”  
“This!” she pointed at Jecho and Cara, “They’re hiding something, can’t you see that? Those other Mandalorians could have been Deathwatch for all we know! Beon?” she turned to him, but Beun put her arm out and stopped her from advancing.   
“That’s enough,” she said warningly, pushing Maceon back. The Zabrak ignored her.   
“Beon, think logically for a second,” she implored him, “You can’t honestly think this is a coincidence. That they found them and that they are willing to return them right now, right before we discovered anything about this ship? What about the pectoral?”   
“Ad a ta’puk,” Ra’ec chuckled; Palouta rolled his eyes. [lit. child of your heart; akin to “child after your own heart”]   
“This is troubling nonetheless,” observed Doaxa, “They wanted to find this, didn’t they? Aviila said they had a piece of armor, so this can’t be a coincidence.”  
“If our Chibala sticks to the plan, we might just find out,” said Dedel with a contemplative hand on his chin, “Their squabbles might lead to some insight.”   
“Indeed,” said Yaun, watching the figures projected before them, “That Zabrak. Mason, they called her? She knows something. Aviila,” he said into their call, “What do you make of the Zabrak?”  
Aviila studied Maceon and watched her struggle to bypass the shorter Twi’lek. “She isn’t one of them. She may be outside their circle.”   
“Someone they called in for this?”  
She shook her head, “No. The Twi’lek got between them. She knows her, but maybe just enough to mediate.”   
Beon didn’t respond. He just stared over at Maceon and then up to Cara. Neither could tell what he was thinking, only making Cara join in Jecho’s nervous fidgeting and Maceon to grow even more angry.   
“Ner’ad,” Chellin chastised her, “Hold your tongue a moment.”   
Maceon shook her head, “Buir you can’t tell me you’re okay with this? With how far we’ve come-”  
“What are you talking about?” Fent cut across her, “Beun let’s get ready to jump. Jecho, tell us where to go and we’ll be there.”   
Jecho opened her mouth to speak, but paused.   
“What’s wrong?” asked No’gan.  
“There’s interference,” Koucitesh said, trying to isolate a third transmission butting into their feed.   
“What are you-” Garrigon was saying as Jiik slammed his fist on the table.   
Back on the ship, beside the projections of Jecho and Cara the tall Togruta bloomed out of the table.   
“Jiik?” said Jecho, surprised, “How are you-”   
“Haria’n!” he demanded, anger curling his lip back, “Ta’naal ra’hel!” [Ruiner, I know you’re here!]


End file.
